The means of fetal nutrition has been debated for over two millennia, with the controversy of oral versus parenteral nutrition already in the Corpus Hippocraticum. In 1587, Aranzio rejected connections between maternal and fetal blood vessels, and coined the term hepar uterinum for the placenta. From the 16th to 18th century, fervent debate focused on the type and extent of connection between maternal and fetal vessels. But up to the middle of the 19th century, an important nutritive function was attributed to amniotic fluid. When with the discovery of oxygen the placenta's respiratory function became understood, its nutritional function fell from grace. Most scientists realized reluctantly that the organ had numerous functions. As late as the 19th century, the advent of microscopy allowed cell theory to develop, and analytical chemistry furthered the understanding of the transport of nutrients across the placenta. The identification of the syncytiotrophoblast made passive diffusion unlikely. Radioisotopes, molecular biology, and the fluid mosaic model of the cell membrane revealed active transport mechanisms for nearly all macronutrients.


Comparative analyses, as carried out by comparative genomics and bioinformatics, have proven extremely powerful to obtain insight into the identity of specific genes that underlie differences and similarities across species. The central concept developed in this chapter is that important aspects of the functional differences between organisms derive not only from the differences in genetic components (which underlies comparative genomics) but also from dynamic, molecular (physical) interactions. Approaches that aim at identifying such network‐based rather than component‐based homologies between species we shall call Comparative Systems Biology. It will be illustrated by a number of examples from metabolic networks from prokaryotes, via yeast, to man. The potential for species comparisons, at the genome‐scale using classical approaches and at the more detailed level of dynamic molecular networks will be illustrated. In our opinion, comparative systems biology, as a marriage between bioinformatics and systems biology, will offer new insights into the nature of organisms for the benefit of medicine, biotechnology, and drug design. As dynamic modeling is becoming more mainstream in cell biology, the potential of comparative systems biology will become more evident. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


This paper explores the recently proposed Graph Convolutional Network architecture proposed in (Kipf & Welling, 2016) The key points of their work is summarized and their results are reproduced. Graph regularization and alternative graph convolution approaches are explored. I find that explicit graph regularization was correctly rejected by (Kipf & Welling, 2016). I attempt to improve the performance of GCN by approximating a k-step transition matrix in place of the normalized graph laplacian, but I fail to find positive results. Nonetheless, the performance of several configurations of this GCN variation is shown for the Cora, Citeseer, and Pubmed datasets.


The sinipak traditional costumery is a centuriesold heritage inherited by the Dusun Tindal ethnic community located mainly in the flatlands of Kampung Bangkahak, Kampung Tempasuk and Kampung Piasau in the Kota Belud district of Sabah, Malaysia. The designs and accessories exhibited in the sinipak costume of the Dusun Tindal womenfolk are representative of natural materials and elements integrated with human creativity, and are traditionally perceived as symbols of wealth and social status within the community. Findings of this study were derived from fieldwork data and analysis of the design concepts of the sinipak female costumery.


The main objective of this study is to improve the understanding and evaluate the complex hydro geological situation and the groundwater flow regime in Sag El Naam Basin, based on visual MODFLOW computer Code. Arc GIS was used for conceptual model construction. A quietest software was used for calculating aquifers' hydraulic properties. The model was run and calibrated using trail-and error techniques. The aquifer hydraulic conductivity, storativity, recharge, and constant head boundary (CHB) were adjusted during calibration to obtain acceptable match between calculated and observed heads and fluxes. The calibration of three-dimensional finite difference flow model of Sag El Naam basin was realized through acceptable average (RMS) of 0.14 m, residual mean error of 0.09 m, average absolute mean error (AM) of 0.12 m, average standard error of the estimate (SEE) of 0.02 m and average normalized root mean square (NRMS) of 1.49 %.The contour map of the simulated heads visualized closer lines at the north-western and south-western sides assigning recharge from the Shagara basin and Shangli-Tobya sub-basin towards the southwest with steep hydraulic gradient and low permeability, whereas, the water heads decreasing towards the southwest and inside towards the center forming cone of depression which is considered to be due to over pumping. The model assigns the regional flow direction towards the north western, southwestern directions and from the peripheries of the basin towards the center. The main components of water budget were calculated for four years with total Inflow varying between 321.74 and 390.89 and total Outflow between 321.81 and 385.68 mcm. Generally this study successfully formulated a new method of groundwater modeling, confirmed that visual MODFLOW can be used as a comparative technique for evaluation of groundwater flow regime in Sag El Naam Basin.


Strategic management seeks to coordinate and integrate the activities of the various functional areas of a business in order to achieve long-term organizational objectives. Segmentation is central to strategy because different customer groups imply the need for different marketing mixes. The technique of segmenting a market also reveals profit and strategic opportunities for new competitors to challenge established market leaders. Several approaches to market segmentation are useful to locate and describe target segments and influence a company's strategy. Knowing consumers' level of interest in alternative benefits is important in shaping, and perhaps changing, a company's product portfolio. Well defined market segmentation strategy enables better products and services for the customer and will win you a reputation of being the 'customer's marketer. As competition in the banking markets intensifies, financial service institutions have increasingly adopted a strategy based on sophisticated forms of segmentation. The objective of the study was to investigate how commercial banks in Kenya used market segmentation as a strategic management tool. The researcher adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey and focused on all the 43 commercial banks in Kenya. The study collected primary data by use of self-administered questionnaire. Quantitative data collected was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics using SPSS and presented through percentages, means, standard deviations and frequencies. The information was displayed by use of bar charts, graphs and pie charts and in prose-form. The study concludes that banks employ geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentations as their strategic management tool. The study also recommends that it is of significant importance that banks should focus on consumers' changing needs and preferences at different stages during their life in order to not fail to benefit from their customers.


We analyze short and long-term effects of worker displacement. Our focus is on prime-age male workers displaced from Norwegian manufacturing plants. We find that displacement increases the probability of exiting the labor force by about 5 percentage points. This indicates that studies using data that do not incorporate workers leaving the labor force, may strongly underestimate the costs of displacement. The most productive workers are recalled, transferred to a different plant within the firm, or they move to the private sector. The least productive re-employed workers move to the public sector. Generally, the earnings effects are weak. When controlling for worker fixed effects, we find that all workers suffer some short-term losses, even those re-employed within the same firm, but the only workers that seem to suffer a permanent earnings loss are the few who move to the public sector.


Reversible photochromic reactions can be coupled to carrier-mediated transport processes in membranes to bring about the separation or concentration of selected permeants. Carbon monoxide has been pumped against of fourfold concentration gradient by differentially illuminating a hemoglobin membrane. The extent of concentration of photochromic ligands increases with light intensity and is reversible. Nonphotochemically sensitive ligands can also be transported by coupling with phostosensitive carrier-mediated systems.


T he generation of multiple reservoir models that match production data is one of the advantages of automatic history matching. Including facies geometry variations within the AHM process without the modeller control could result in the selection of reservoir models that match production data but lack of sedimentological realism (facies geometry that mimic the geometry observed in nature). These unrealistic models will cause problems in production forecasting and reserves estimation. In this article, a technique is proposed to guarantee sedimentological realism within the AHM process.

Building realistic prior models that describe the non-linear dependencies between sedimentological parameters of deltaic systems can prevent the development of geologically unrealistic reservoir models. Multi-dimensional realistic priors were generated using One-Class Support Vector Machine. This technique captures hidden relations of deltaic parameters: Delta Plane Width, Length and Thickness; Distributary Channel Width and Thickness, Meander Amplitude, and Wavelength and Mouth bar dimensions.
Variables are sampled from the realistic priors in order to assure facies realism. A Multiple Point Statistics (MPS) algorithm is used to model facies in a deltaic reservoir. Variability of facies geometry is produced by changing the MPS geometrical parameter, different training images and regions.

History-matched models produced under geological realistic constraints reduce uncertainty of the production prediction, ensures the realism of the selected reservoir and also helps in the identification of the reservoir geometry.


Background Historically ambulance service performance measurement has been based in time based standards. Whilst time is a significant issue related to clinical outcome for some life-threatening calls this makes up only a small proportion of ambulance service workload and there are many other calls where time has no impact on outcome. The development of alternative performance indicators that reflect the quality and appropriateness as well as the timeliness of pre-hospital care is one of the key recommendations of 'Taking Healthcare to the Patient'. Clinical performance indicators have been developed for category A calls. This project has been designed to extend this work to category B calls. Methods The study is being conducted in several stages using a mixed methods approach. Quantitative analysis of routine category B call data to explore the characteristics of category B calls. Development of a framework to structure indicator development. A consensus workshop to generate ideas for potential performance indicators. A Delphi survey to identify an agreed set of indicators for further testing. Pilot studies to test the usefulness of new indicators and assess the practical implications of implementation. Results to date The project is still in progress. To date the first 3 steps have been completed. Analysis of routine data has found that: 50% of category B call volume is within 5 of the 32 dispatch categories. 18/32 categories account for 96% of calls. Half of patients have some assessment and only about 10% some intervention. A framework for indicator development has been constructed for broad clusters of patients using a number of dimensions that reflect quality care, for example clinical assessment & management, dispatch, destination and patient reported outcomes. The consensus workshop has been conducted and the results are currently being analysed.


Modern Forests is an environmental, institutional, and cultural history of forestry in colonial eastern India. By carefully examining the influence of regional political formations and biogeographic processes on land and forest management, this book offers an analysis of the interrelated social and biophysical factors that influenced landscape change. Through a cultural analysis of powerful landscape representations, Modern Forests reveals the contention, debates, and uncertainty that persisted for two hundred years of colonial rule as forests were identified, classified, and brought under different regimes of control and were transformed to serve a variety of imperial and local interests. The author examines the regionally varied conditions that generated widely different kinds of forest management systems, and the ways in which certain ideas and forces became dominant at various times. Through this emphasis on regional socio-political processes and ecologies, the author offers a new way to write environmental history. Instead of making a sharp distinction between third-world and first-world experiences in forest management, the book suggests a potential for cross-continental comparative studies through regional analyses. The book also offers an approach to historical anthropology that does not make apolitical separations between foreign and indigenous views of the world of nature, insisting instead that different cultural repertoires for discerning the natural, and using it, can be fashioned out of shared concerns within and across social groups. The politics of such cultural construction, the book argues, must be studied through institutional histories and ethnographies of statemaking. In conclusion, the author offers a genealogy of development as it can be traced from forest conservation in colonial eastern India.


To the Editor .—The Nissen's fundoplication 1 for complicated hiatal hernia and reflux esophagitis is an effective and relatively uncomplicated procedure. It adequately restores the gastroesophageal sphincter mechanism with respect to length and pressure, thus preventing reflux in the majority of patients. If the procedure is performed improperly, however, the fundoplication can slip down onto the body of the stomach, resulting in recurrent reflux and possible obstruction. The "slipped" Nissen's fundoplication may be difficult to differentiate roentgenographically from herniation of the stomach through the plication, but the typical symptoms are those of recurrent hiatal hernia—reflux, pain, and dysphagia. Diagnosis is by means of upper gastrointestinal tract roentgenographic series and endoscopy. The hourglass appearance seen on barium swallow roentgenogram (Figure) is classic but can occur intermittently. Operative repair usually involves replacing the plication in its appropriate position above the gastroesophageal junction and securing it with stout seromuscular sutures through the gastroesophageal


The increasing of pre-trained models has significantly facilitated the performance on limited data tasks with transfer learning. However, progress on transfer learning mainly focuses on optimizing the weights of pre-trained models, which ignores the structure mismatch between the model and the target task. This paper aims to improve the transfer performance from another angle - in addition to tuning the weights, we tune the structure of pre-trained models, in order to better match the target task. To this end, we propose TransTailor, targeting at pruning the pre-trained model for improved transfer learning. Different from traditional pruning pipelines, we prune and fine-tune the pre-trained model according to the target-aware weight importance, generating an optimal sub-model tailored for a specific target task. In this way, we transfer a more suitable sub-structure that can be applied during fine-tuning to benefit the final performance. Extensive experiments on multiple pre-trained models and datasets demonstrate that TransTailor outperforms the traditional pruning methods and achieves competitive or even better performance than other state-of-the-art transfer learning methods while using a smaller model. Notably, on the Stanford Dogs dataset, TransTailor can achieve 2.7% accuracy improvement over other transfer methods with 20% fewer FLOPs.


Hibernation pattern and changes in the body weight of juvenile and adult dormice, Glis glis orientalis, kept in uncontrolled conditions were investigated. It was determined that G.g.orientalis entered hibernation on October 28 when its body weight was 180 g and the ambient temperature was below 18 oC, which seems to be the critical temperature for entering hibernation. Although body weight has an important role in entering hibernation at the beginning of the hibernation season, dormice hibernated as the hibernation season progressed regardless of their body weight. Adult dormice arose from hibernation during the period of May 13 to June 6. The maximum uninterrupted period of hibernation was 31 days in adult dormice and 36 days in juveniles. An adult dormouse spent 181 days in hibernation during the hibernation season. There were periodic cycles, varying from 1 to 6 weeks, in the body weight of G.g.orientalis.


Critical realists offer a set of philosophical underpinnings for social research. Critical realists also engage constructively with social theory, but they are more than just theorists. In this chapter I list and describe various innovative methodological contributions made in recent years by realists. I point out ways in which research methods (i.e. techniques) fit with particular methodological assertions. There is a historical legacy of empiricism which critical realists often use as a foil to make their own position more clear. However, among realists, a wide variety of methods are used, and the range of realist methodological assumptions is wider than one might expect because of their efforts to work with social theory.The introduction to the chapter covers ontology as it relates to research methods. The second section of the review introduces retroduction, a major methodological starting-point common to most realists. The third section reviews concretely the realist debate over statistics and some realist contributions to qualitative methodology, qualitative methods, and action research as used by realists. The fourth section takes up the challenge of realist claims about knowledge (debates usually known as epistemology). An important aim in this chapter is to argue that 'factual' statements usually embody layers of meaning, and thus are contestable; that enquiry using quantitative methods can coherently be done from a realist perspective; and that among realists qualitative enquiry is a broad and useful set of methods which have made genuine innovations in methodological knowledge. Meta-critique and pluralism are widely-used realist contributions to the methods tool-basket in social science, and the realist approach to social statistics is a much better guide to how statistics is, in practice, done than any currently available empiricist quantitative textbook (Ron, 2002). However 'quantitative' research always rests upon conceptual, theoretical and qualitatively derived frameworks and therefore is derived from qualitative work, whereas the converse is not true; qualitative research does not require any quantitative research. In the current scene, mixed methods also play a key role as a growing area of research methods. In this way, within sections one and two, the reader is given an overview of Volume 1 of this collection. Sections two and three of this chapter review Volumes 2 and 3 (realist methods, and empirical examples, respectively). Section four reviews the epistemological theme that is at the core of Volume 4. This introduction thus roughly parallels the contents of the rest of the volumes.


In this paper we introduce a novel method of gradient normalization and decay with respect to depth. Our method leverages the simple concept of normalizing all gradients in a deep neural network, and then decaying said gradients with respect to their depth in the network. Our proposed normalization and decay techniques can be used in conjunction with most current state of the art optimizers and are a very simple addition to any network. This method, although simple, showed improvements in convergence time on state of the art networks such as DenseNet and ResNet on image classification tasks, as well as on an LSTM for natural language processing tasks.


We report the fabrication of novel multiferroic nanostructured bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) fibers using the sol–gel based electrospinning technique. Phase pure BiFeO3 fibers were prepared by thermally annealing the electrospun BiFeO3/polyvinylpyrrolidone composite fibers in air for 1 h at 600 °C. The x-ray diffraction pattern of the fibers (BiFeO3) obtained showed that their crystalline structures were rhombohedral perovskite structures. Both scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that the BiFeO3 fibers were composed of fine grained microstructures. The grains were self-assembled and self-organized to yield dense and continuous fibrous structures. The magnetic hysteresis loops of these nanostructured fibers displayed the expected ferromagnetic behavior, whereby a coercivity of ∼ 250 Oe and a saturation magnetization of ∼ 1.34 emu g − 1 were obtained. The ferroelectricity and ferroelectric domain structures of the fibers were confirmed using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The piezoelectric hysteresis loops and polar domain switching behavior of the fibers were examined. Such multiferroic fibers are significant for electroactive applications and nano-scale devices.


Previous research has established that conscious stimuli can lead to non-conscious predictions. Yet, it also suggests that conscious awareness of stimuli is a necessary condition for using them in predictions. We use subliminal movement – with and without obstacles – to examine predictions from subliminal stimuli. In four experiments, a moving object was masked with continuous flash suppression. After the object had stopped moving, a conscious probe appeared in a location that was either consistent with the movement or not. In the first three experiments the movement was linear, and non-conscious predictions were based on both direction and speed of movement. In Experiment 4, the moving object collided with an obstacle. Response times revealed predictions on the deflection route. We thus conclude that humans can use dynamic subliminal information to generate active predictions about the future


Abstract Many models of the large-scale thermohaline circulation in the ocean exhibit strong zonally integrated upwelling in the midlatitude North Atlantic that significantly decreases the amount of deep water that is carried from the formation regions in the subpolar North Atlantic toward low latitudes and across the equator. In an analysis of results from the Community Modeling Effort using a suite of models with different horizontal resolution, wind and thermohaline forcing, and mixing parameters, it is shown that the upwelling is always concentrated in the western boundary layer between roughly 30° and 40°N. The vertical transport across 1000 m appears to be controlled by local dynamics and strongly depends on the horizontal resolution and mixing parameters of the model. It is suggested that in models with a realistic deep-water formation rate in the subpolar North Atlantic, the excessive upwelling can be considered as the prime reason for the typically too low meridional overturning rates and northwa...


This paper reports a hybrid system consisting of a homemade electronic nose system (E-nose) with a sensor array of 16 metal-oxide sensors and a near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) system for discriminating different kinds of ginsengs. 315 samples from 9 kinds of ginsengs were measured by using both systems with simple sample pretreatment. Six commonly used features were extracted from each sensor in the E-nose sensor array. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimension of NIRS data. Then, models were built and trained with a support vector machine separately using datasets of the two systems. The classification performances of individual systems were optimized and compared. The advantages and disadvantages of the two systems were demonstrated by comparing empirical probability distributions in the category of predict labels for all samples. Finally, new weighted feature-level data-fusion and Dempster–Shafer-theory based decision-level data-fusion approaches for the hybrid system were separately exploited. The results showed that the hybrid system achieved an optimal classification accuracy of 99.58% with weighted feature-level fusion and 99.24% with decision-level fusion, which significantly outperformed the performance of individual systems (90.18% by the E-nose and 97.98% by NIRS) by the Student's t-test (p < 0.001).


Is it possible to consider a cinematographic screenplay as a literary work and not more just like a «transient state» (as Giorgio Tinazzi says in his studies on Cinema and Literature) or a text which can only be read as a technical note strictly connected to the filmic realization? And what kind of critical and interpretative approaches could we adopt to study a scenario such as a literary text? So the main purpose of this thesis is to study a screenplay realized by a literary author as a literary text (a novel, for example) and not only like a script containing only directions on the locations and gestures for the movie. This includes a linguistic approach to the texts, in order to find the techniques for speech reproduction, and also an interpretative approach to find the main characteristics of the style and of the Weltanschauung of the writer. The linguistic approach aims at investigating the screenplay as a text belonging to the linguistic category of the "scritto-trasmesso" (written-speech), typical of the so-called "diamesia" – (derived from the Greek words dia, διά 'through'and mesos, έσος 'middle'), while the interpretative one wants to study the cultural identity of the two writers and also to search, in their own style, the way they use to represent and reproduce reality. The thesis deals with screenplays written by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Cesare Zavattini. Regarding Pasolini, it seemed very important to focus the attention on two fundamental aspects: the free expression of the triumph of the senses and bodily impulses and the harsh poverty that pervades the representation of roman underclass of 60s. So the two screenplays analyzer are : Il Decameron and Accattone. While the two chosen scenarios by Zavattini, Miracolo a Milano and Umberto D., represent the neo-realist orthodoxy and the need for an instance of mimesis and also the fantasy and the magic realism that represent the style of the auctor.


Objective: The world is experiencing challenging times caused by spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus are the most prevalent comorbidities of COVID-19. This review discusses several studies that showed the effect of acupuncture on hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus, and that discussed the mechanism of acupuncture, points used, and treatment strategies. Method: Literature was searched for studies published from 2016 to 2020 on how acupuncture affects hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus on the Google Scholar and PubMed databases using the keywords acupuncture, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Randomized clinical trials on human subjects, studies that measured systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) as outcomes, and studies that measured plasma glucose level as the outcome were included. Studies that did not include clinical effects of acupuncture were excluded. Results: Studies on hypertension (n = 2) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 2) were found. These studies suggested that acupuncture might be able to reduce SBP and DBP, fasting plasma glucose level, oral glucose tolerance, and random blood glucose level. Conclusions: Preliminary studies have suggested that acupuncture might reduce BP in hypertension and reduce blood sugar and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus. More research is required to demonstrate if acupuncture is a useful adjunct for treating hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus as comorbidities of COVID-19.


To improve the performance of polyether ether ketone matrix (PEEK) in hard tissue repair and replacement applications, we fabricated graphene (G) reinforced PEEK with graded G concentrations (0.1%-5%) through injection molding. The mechanical properties, surface morphology, chemical composition and thermal stability of the composites have been characterized through universal mechanical testing, scanning electron microscopy, contact-angle measurement, transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis system. The biocompatibility has been assessed in vitro and the bone repair function of the composite implant have been assessed in vivo using a rabbit mandibular bone defect model. Mechanical testing results suggest that the composite samples have compressive moduli similar to that of the natural bone. Although addition of G into PEEK does not significantly influence the composite tensile, flexural or compressive moduli, it can significantly enhance the ductility and toughness of the material. On the other hand, all G-reinforced PEEK implants demonstrated enhanced adhesion and differentiation of rat bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), with 5% G-PEEK showing the highest bioactivity among all samples. The in vivo osseointegration data further revealed that 5% G-PEEK has the best effect in promoting osseointegration and bone regeneration, in both early stage and late stage bone re-growth. Study shows that our G-reinforced PEEK-based implants provides a promising strategy for enhancing the performance of future regenerative bone implants.


PURPOSE
Skeletal muscle capillarization plays a key role in oxygen and nutrient delivery to muscle. The loss of muscle mass with aging and the concept of anabolic resistance have been, at least partly, attributed to changes in skeletal muscle capillary structure and function. We aimed to compare skeletal muscle capillarization between young and older men and evaluate whether resistance-type exercise training increases muscle capillarization in older men.

METHODS
Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis of healthy young (n = 14, 26 ± 2 yr) and older (n = 16, 72 ± 1 yr) adult men, with biopsies before and after 12 wk of resistance-type exercise training in the older subjects. Immunohistochemistry was used to assess skeletal muscle fiber size, capillary contacts (CC) per muscle fiber, and the capillary-to-fiber perimeter exchange (CFPE) index in type I and II muscle fibers.

RESULTS
Type II muscle fibers were smaller in old versus young (4507 ± 268 vs 6084 ± 497 μm, respectively, P = 0.007). Type I and type II muscle fiber CC and CFPE index were smaller in old compared with young muscle (CC type I: 3.8 ± 0.2 vs 5.0 ± 0.3; CC type II: 3.2 ± 0.2 vs 4.2 ± 0.2, respectively; both P < 0.001). Resistance-type exercise training increased type II muscle fiber size only. In addition, CC and CFPE index increased in both the type I (26% ± 9% and 27% ± 8%) and type II muscle fibers (33% ± 7% and 24% ± 6%, respectively; all P ≤ 0.001) after 12 wk resistance training in older men.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that resistance-type exercise training can effectively augment skeletal muscle fiber capillarization in older men. The greater capillary supply may be an important prerequisite to reverse anabolic resistance and support muscle hypertrophy during lifestyle interventions aiming to support healthy aging.


The Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France, recently organized a remarkable exhibition:
Venenum, un Monde Empoisonné. It ran from April 2017 to April 2018 and was located in
one of the museum's five large temporary exhibition spaces. Venenum did justice to the multidisciplinary
and multi-thematic nature of this newly founded museum, bringing together objects
otherwise classified separately as natural history, art, ethnography, or history.


This article explores some service development practices that help to promote social inclusion through day services modernisation (DSM). It is based on the experiences of one NHS trust that successfully negotiated the transition from segregated, buildings‐based in‐house day care services operating during working hours to ones that are individualised, person‐focused and operate at times and in places used also by the general public, providing individual, person‐to‐person support to enable recovery and quality of life in the wider community. Key to success is the concept of the modern, inclusive day service as a community bridge builder operating across a number of life domains and spanning the mental health/community boundary while retaining strong connections with the rest of the mental health system.


Neutral cyclometalated Ir(iii) complexes of general formula [Ir(ppy)2(O^O)squi], where ppy = 2-phenylpyridine and (O^O)squi = TBC (tetrabromocatechol) or TCC (tetrachlorocatechol) in their semiquinone (squi) monoanionic redox state, were synthesized by chemically oxidizing the anionic parent complexes NBu4[Ir(ppy)2(O^O)cat], in which (O^O)cat represents the corresponding ancillary dioxolene ligand in its dianionic catecholate (cat) redox state. This chemical oxidation leads to the modification of both the photophysical and the magnetic properties of the complexes. While the NBu4[Ir(ppy)2(O^O)cat] complexes are diamagnetic (D) and yellow-orange solids, the corresponding oxidized complexes [Ir(ppy)2(O^O)squi] display paramagnetic (P) properties and are characterized by a dark-green color. The conversion between the two forms (squi vs. cat) is electrochemically and chemically fully reversible. Indeed, the anionic NBu4[Ir(ppy)2(O^O)cat] complexes are quantitatively restored by chemical reduction of the neutral [Ir(ppy)2(O^O)squi] parents. These complexes therefore represent interesting redox based switches between multi-parameter states since they allow switching from a neutral paramagnetic to an anionic diamagnetic form together with a significant change in chromicity. Taking advantage of the significant color difference between the oxidized and the reduced form, an electrochromic cell was prepared with [Ir(ppy)2(TBC)squi] and its spectroelectrochemical properties are reported.


Based on rate equations, a theoretical model of a fiber oscillator with a multimode gain fiber was built. We studied the effect of the rare earth doping profile in the core on the output characteristics of the multimode fiber oscillator. The results indicated that a pure fundamental mode can be obtained by partly doping the core of the large mode area (LMA) ytterbium doped fiber (YDF) in the fiber laser. Furthermore, a sole specific high-order mode can also be implemented by tailoring the rare earth doping profile according to the simulations. The mode coupling effect was also taken into account in the model. In spite of the mode coupling effect, the specific mode was able to dominate in the output of the fiber laser by utilizing the designed LMA YDF.


In the differential diagnosis of acute renal failure in Newborns prerenal, renal and postrenal causes must be considered. Additionally, in twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome especially the donor can suffer from acute renal failure caused by longterm intrauterine hypoperfusion of the kidneys resulting in severe retardation of renal development.


Suddenly, everyones talking about HTML5, and ready or not, you need to get acquainted with this powerful new development in web and application design. Some of its new features are already being implemented by existing browsers, and much more is around the corner.Written by developers who have been using the new language for the past year in their work, this book shows you how to start adapting the language now to realize its benefits on todays browsers. Rather than being just an academic investigation, it concentrates on the practicalthe problems HTML5 can solve for you right away. By following the books hands-on HTML5 code examples youll learn:new semantics and structures to help your site become richer and more accessiblehow to apply the most important JavaScript APIs that are already implementedthe uses of native multimedia for video and audiotechniques for drawing lines, fills, gradients, images and text with canvas how to build more intelligent web formsimplementation of new storage options and web databaseshow geolocation works with HTML5 in both web and mobile applications********There appear to be intermittent problems with the first printing of Introducing HTML5. If you have one of these copies, please email us at [email protected] with a copy of your receipt (from any reseller), and we'll either provide access to the eBook or send you another copy of the print book -- whichever you prefer. If youd like the eBook we can add that to your Peachpit.com account. You can set up a free account at www.peachpit.com/join http://www.peachpit.com/join. Thanks so much for your understanding!


A protein involved in protein homeostasis limits the maturation of IGF1R and the overproduction of blood cells. There is interest in targeting protein quality control pathways that ensure refolding or elimination of misfolded proteins to kill cancer cells. Osorio et al. identified a role for AIRAPL (an ortholog of AIP-1, which is involved in protein quality control pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans) in myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of diseases in which the production of blood cells in the bone marrow is increased. Mice lacking Zfand2b (the gene encoding AIRAPL) developed hematological symptoms characteristic of myeloproliferative neoplasms, such as splenomegaly and expansion of various myeloid lineages. Western blot analysis of bone marrow from Zfand2b–/– mice revealed an increase in the total abundance and phosphorylation of insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R), a kinase that activates cell growth and proliferation. In HEK-293T cells, overexpression of AIRAPL reduced IGF1R abundance in a proteasome-dependent manner. Furthermore, exogenous AIRAPL interacted with pro-IGF1R rather than mature IGF1R, and knockout of endogenous AIRAPL resulted in an increase in the abundance of mature IGF1R, suggesting that AIRAPL triggered the proteasomal degradation of pro-IGF1R before it could undergo processing to the mature form. Igf1r haploinsufficiency in Zfand2b–/– mice or treatment of Zfand2b–/– mice with a kinase inhibitor of IGF1R prevented or attenuated the development of hematological symptoms seen in Zfand2b–/– mice. In addition, hematological symptoms were improved in mice that are a model of a specific type of myeloproliferative neoplasm upon treatment with an IGF1R kinase inhibitor or transduction with bone marrow cells from Igf1r+/+ mice (but not with that from Igf1r+/– mice). In samples from individuals with various types of myeloproliferative neoplasms, AIRAPL was not detected and both pro- and mature IGF1R were increased in abundance. Thus, AIRAPL limits the processing of IGF1R into its mature form in hematopoietic stem cells and thus the production of myeloid cells. These results also suggest that IGF1R inhibitors could be used in combination with existing therapies for myeloproliferative neoplasms (see LaFave and Levine). F. G. Osorio, C. Soria-Valles, O. Santiago-Fernández, T. Bernal, M. Mittelbrunn, E. Colado, F. Rodríguez, E. Bonzon-Kulichenko, J. Vázquez, M. Porta-de-la-Riva, J. Cerón, A. Fueyo, J. Li, A. R. Green, J. M. P. Freije, C. López-Otín, Loss of the proteostasis factor AIRAPL causes myeloid transformation by deregulating IGF-1 signaling. Nat. Med. 22, 91–96 (2016). [PubMed] L. M. LaFave, R. L. Levine, Targeting a regulator of protein homeostasis in myeloproliferative neoplasms. Nat. Med. 22, 20–21 (2016). [PubMed]


The lipid fraction of milk is one of the most complex matrixes in foodstuffs due to the presence of a high number of moieties with different physical and chemical properties. Glycerolipids include glycerol and two fatty acids esterified in positions sn-1 and sn-2 with higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids than in the triglyceride fraction of milk. Sphingolipids consist of a sphingoid base linked to a fatty acid across an amide bond. Their amphiphilic nature makes them suitable to be added into a variety of foods and recent investigations show that phospholipids, mainly phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin, can exert antimicrobial, antiviral, and anticancer activities as well as positive effects in Alzheimer's disease, stress, and memory decline. Polar lipids can be found as natural constituents in the membranes of all living organisms with soybean and eggs as the principal industrial sources, yet they have low contents in phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin. Animal products are rich sources of these compounds but since there are legal restrictions to avoid transmission of prions, milk and dairy products are gaining interest as alternative sources. This review summarizes the analysis of polar lipids in dairy products including sample preparation (extraction and fractionation/isolation) and analysis by GC or HPLC and the latest research works using ELSD, CAD, and MS detectors.


Background and Objective: With the onset of adulthood, the rate of high-risk behaviors in individuals rises. Research has shown that preventive training schedules reduces the incidence of high-risk behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate Effectiveness of Drug Use and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Prevention Package on Drug Use and High Risk Behaviors Reduction among College Students of Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch. Methods: The study sample was composed of all students in different grades. The sampling method of research had two stages. First, 384 students were selected according to Krejcie and Morgan chart, using stratified random sampling method; they answered to Risky Behaviors questionnaire. Then 15 participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 15 participants to the control group. Using risky behavior questionnaire a pre-test was performed for both groups. Then the experimental group participated in 12 session (each session 90 minutes) of drug use and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome prevention workshop; the control group remained on a waiting list. At the end of training sessions and one month follow up, both groups were tested again. Data was analyzed using repeated measures design. Results : The results showed that the variable scores of tendency to drug use, sexual risk behaviors, anti-social behavior and suicidal thoughts in the post-test and follow-up in experimental group was significantly lower than the control group. So we can conclude that the training package of drug use and AIDS prevention and prevention is effective in drug use and risky behavior reduction. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the drug use and acquired immune deficiency syndrome Prevention Package can be effective in reducing drug use and high-risk behaviors.


OBJECTIVE
We investigate the predictive value of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow void on outcome after shunting in a prospective series of patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).

METHODS
The degree and extension of CSF flow void were examined on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans of 37 elderly patients with idiopathic NPH who underwent subsequent shunting. The degree of flow void was assessed in comparison with the signal of large cerebral arteries. The extension was evaluated via the calculation of sum scores for the occurrence of flow void in different locations of the ventricular system. Those parameters were not considered in the decision to perform shunting. CSF flow void in the aqueduct and the adjacent third and fourth ventricles of the 37 patients with idiopathic NPH was compared with that of 37 age-matched control patients. CSF flow void scores in patients with idiopathic NPH were investigated for correlations between postoperative outcome scores and ventricular width indices.

RESULTS
No difference was found between the occurrence of aqueductal CSF flow void in patients with idiopathic NPH and the control group. A significant difference, however, was noted for the extension of the CSF flow void, which was greater in the NPH group. Postoperative improvement was found in 33 of 37 patients with idiopathic NPH at a mean follow-up of 15.6 months. Only small, statistically not significant correlations were found between CSF flow void and postoperative outcome. Flow void sum scores, however, correlated significantly with ventricular width indices.

CONCLUSION
The degree and extension of CSF flow void on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans have little predictive value for outcome after shunting in patients with idiopathic NPH. The greater extension of the CSF flow void in patients with NPH is most likely related to increased ventricular width. It is not useful to consider CSF flow void findings on conventional magnetic resonance imaging scans in making the decision to offer shunting in patients with idiopathic NPH.


Continuous production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through the two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e-ORR) in distributed electrochemical cells offers important advantages for point-of-use water treatment and pulp bleaching over the complex industrial anthraquinone process. A low-cost, heterogeneous 2e-ORR electrocatalyst with high activity and selectivity is key to meeting the future needs for distributed production of H2O2 with large capacity. Herein, we demonstrate high activity and selectivity of a new heterogeneous organic molecular electrocatalyst, 2,2'-dipyridylamine, with an H2O2 yield of ca. 80%, and an onset potential of ca. 0.60 V vs. RHE in acidic aqueous electrolyte. We show that this acid-compatible, inexpensive, small organic molecule can catalyze 2e-ORR as efficiently as the state-of-the-art catalysts based on mercury-precious metal alloys. We propose different mechanisms of dioxygen electroreduction based on density functional theory calculations, which correlate activity with calculated standard reduction potential of reaction intermediates.


After running for a long time, fan impeller, inlet box, air inlet, and fan casing of mine ventilation main fan are corroded seriously. Thus is a threat to safe operation of main fans, which increases running resistance and reduces efficiency. Therefore, main fan corroded can't meet actual needs of field-work. China's scientific research institutes and related businesses have carried out a lot of research and development on energy-saving and benefit-increasing of mine ventilation main fan since 1990's. Successful experience and method has been widely used in many mines. The design focuses on technical scheme of energy efficiency by means of surface anti-corrosion treatment. Such as choosing rationally and installing main fan in accordance with relevant national norms, analyzing its corrosive environment and carrying out anti-corrosion design.


In this paper we present an efficient data structure and algorithms for GPU ray tracing of secondary effects like reflections, refractions and shadows. Our method extends previous work on layered depth cubes in that it uses layered depth cubes as an adaptive space partitioning scheme for ray tracing. We propose a new method to efficiently build LDCs on the GPU using geometry shaders available in Direct3D 10. The overhead of peeling the scene multiple times can thus be avoided. We further show that the traversal of secondary rays is greatly accelerated by exploiting a two level hierarchy and the adaptive nature of the LDC. Due to the computational and bandwidth capacities available on recent GPUs our method enables high-quality rendering of staticanddynamic scenes at interactive rates.


Molar conductance (Λ) of ionizable side chains amino acids, lysine (Lys) and arginine (Arg) with dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) in water and in NaCl solutions was measured at temperatures range 298 K to 313 K. The limited molar conductance (Λo) and the constant of the ions association (KA) are calculated using the Shedlovsky techniques. The dynamic radius of the concerned ion (R) is calculated by used Stokes–Einstein relation. The heat of association, the Gibbs free energy, the change of entropy and activation energy (ΔHo/ kJ mol-1, ΔGo/ kJ mol-1, ΔSo/J K-1 mol-1, and ΔES/ kJ mol-1) respectively), also calculated. The data show increases the molar conductance with increase in temperature and decreasing in values at addition of DHA to Lys and Arg solutions. The association ions in NaCl solutions appear to increase in radius and decrease in diffusion coefficient relative to water solutions.ΔES, shows in most samples a positive value for the association and the values in NaCl solutions has lower relative to the water solutions. ΔGo is a trend to decrease with an increase in DHA concentration in water and NaCl solutions. The ion association is exothermic reaction relative to the negative value of ΔHo. The ΔSo andΔHo results, for Lys and Arg solutions, show decreasing in values at increase in DHA concentration in water and NaCl solutions. ΔGo (kJ mol-1), ΔSo (J K-1 mol-1), Î"Ho (kJ mol-1), and ΔEs (kJ mol-1)


Teachers' motivation is likely to be a relevant factor affecting students' learning. We exploit the fact that motivated teachers are typically those who have chosen to be in a given school, while teachers just waiting to move to another school may be rather demotivated. We link this dimension of teacher motivation - as measured by the share of teachers who asked to leave their current school - to students' learning - as measured by their scores in reading and math standardized tests in a national examination. We find that the share of teachers applying for a transfer to another school negatively affects students' achievements.


Prior research has found mixed evidence for the long-theorized link between religiosity and pro-social behavior. To help overcome this divergence, I hypothesize that pro-social behavior is linked not to religiosity per se, but rather to the salience of religion and religious norms. I report a field experiment that examined when auction participants will respond to an appeal to continue bidding for secular charitable causes. Religious individuals are more likely than non-religious individuals to respond to an appeal "for charity" only on days that they visit their place of worship; on other days of the week, religiosity has no effect. Notably, the result persists after controlling for a host of factors that may influence bidding, but disappears when the appeal "for charity" is replaced by an appeal to bid for other (i.e., competitive) reasons. Implications for the link between religion and pro-social behavior are discussed.


The purpose of this thesis is to provide a robust epistemological justification for Evidence Based Medicine (EMB), and thereby to demonstrate the epistemological short
comings of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). CAM has received support from both philosophers, such as Rorty and Feyerband, and the Sociology and Anthropology
of Medicine. The thesis will thus review both the internal coherence and the application of non-realist arguments, and counter non-realism with the realist epistemology and philosophy of science that is represented by C.S. Peirce's pragmatism.

Rorty and Feyerabend and others have developed radical forms of scientific antirealism in the latter 20th century. Subsequently, sociologists developed even more
intractable forms of anti-realism, which they applied to the social study of science. This approach served to challenge the legitimacy of orthodox scientific practice (including EMB).

A practical expression of this controversy was immediately identified in the question of the role of scientific authority in a democratic society. That question was immediately applied to the status of alternative medical systems and their legitimacy vis-a-vis EBM in terms of the
controversy over what has come to be termed "medical pluralism": If scientific medicine has no particular authority, should other, medical systems, epistemically incompatible with EBM, be made available as well?
The thesis will suggest that non-realism is in fact a marginal position within the philosophy of science. Scientists, medical researchers and medical practitioners may thus appeal to the philosophy of science in order to justify their authority in the face of challenges
from CAM. However, it will be suggested that they are frequently ill-served by a reliance on a simplistic understanding of the philosophy of Karl Popper. An alternative will be proposed in the philosophy of C. S. Peirce. His pragmatism offers to medical research and medical practice a way of understanding and justifying the scientific process, a justification of realism in the face of non-realism, and a resource for the criticism of CAM and medical pluralism, as at once epistemologically ill grounded and potentially dangerous to patients and the general public.


This paper presents an elastic ribbon-like piezoelectric energy harvester which is targeted for skin-wearable devices by harnessing the movements of stretchable surfaces. The device aims to power up smart thin stick-on devices for healthcare monitoring. By embedding a ribbon-like PVDF film in a flexible elastomer, Ecoflex, the device is potentially able to stretch 34%, while maintaining internal strain of the film below its plastic deformation limit. Alternate electrode layout and bimorph configuration help to reduce charge cancellation, while increasing overall effectiveness. The harvester prototype with 225 mm3 active volume is able to output 15.6 V at open-circuit upon stretching 26% and is capable of generating at least 121 nJ per cycle.


The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a new social and academic reality to researchers worldwide. The field of marine science, our own topic of interest, has also been impacted in multiple ways, from cancelation of laboratory and field activities to postponement of onboard research. As graduate researchers, we have a time-sensitive academic path, and our current situation may constrain our academic future. At the same time, the pandemic demands revised strategies to deal with the ongoing difficulties and tackle similar future situations. In this perspective, we have gathered information on the challenges, solutions and opportunities for graduate researchers in the field of marine science by (1) discussing the relevant short-, long-term challenges caused by the pandemic, (2) providing feasible immediate and near-future solutions, (3) compiling opportunities (courses, scientific events, academic positions), and (4) creating a shared social media account to make the available information on new opportunities more accessible. With this, we hope to add to the efforts to advance the academic career of marine graduates during this harsh period.


The aim of this study was to investigate the release profile, and evaluate the best fitted kinetic model and mechanism, of curcumin diethyl disuccinate (CDD) from chitosan-alginate biopolymeric nanoparticles (CANPs) in simulated gastrointestinal fluids (without enzymes) and simulated body fluid. The CDD-loaded CANPs (CDD-CANPs) were prepared by oil-in-water emulsification and ionotropic gelation under the previously reported optimal condition (3 mg/mL of CDD, 4.05% (w/v) of Tween TM 80 and a chitosan:alginate mass ratio of 0.05:1), which resulted in CDD-CANPs with a favorable particle size (327±14 nm), zeta potential (-27.3±0.2 mV), encapsulation efficiency (51.2±2.2%) and loading capacity (11.2±0.8%). The in vitro release of CDD from the CDD-CANPs in simulated gastrointestinal fluid at pH 1.2, 4.5 and 6.8, and simulated body fluid at pH 7.4, indicated that the release of CDD could be controlled, was sustained over at least 72 h and best fit the Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetic model with a Fickian diffusion mechanism. Therefore, CANPs have the potential to be used for the controlled release of CDD in the gastrointestinal tract and blood circulation.


This article (1) reviews the history of the immigration bed mandate (or bed quota) from 2009 to present, (2) discusses its inconsistent interpretation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and (3) offers reasons why the bed mandate is both constitutionally questionable and bad policy.


We propose granular computing (GrC) on ontology as a solution to the problem of modeling complex architectures. We expressed the architectures formally as ontology domains, which include two components: the set of basic vocabularies and a knowledge library of rules. The set of basic vocabularies contains elements or basic architecture components. The knowledge library comprises rules that control the combination and construction of the basic elements. As the rules are often given by architectural experts subjectively, they may contain redundant, conflicting, and overlapping rules, especially in certain styles of ancient southeast Chinese architecture. It is difficult to distinguish or identify these rules; therefore, we apply the multilevel approach on ontology [Y. Liu, C. Xu, Q. Zhang, and Y. Pan, ¿Smart architect: Scalable ontology-based modeling for ancient chinese architecture,¿ IEEE Intell. Syst., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 49-56, Jan./Feb. 2008] and approximation theory of GrC. In this process, we present a measurement that is based on roughness functions to evaluate the degrees of approximation between the selected set and certain architecture domains. With the monotonicity characteristic of roughness functions, we can design a heuristic algorithm to select a suitable knowledge base (rule set) to assist in integrating the parts into final architectures, via several levels. Experiments with a real architectural project, i.e., modeling ancient southeast Chinese architectures, show that our method is effective and may simplify the design of the automodeling system and enhance its performance.


Several water phantoms were scanned under a number of conditions and radiation exposure due to scatter was measured at the center of one end. The decrease of the scatter radiation exposure is nearly exponential with distance from the slice plane. The half-value distance is a function of the slice cross-sectional area. An empirical equation is presented to relate exposure to the pertinent variables.


The subcortical afferent connections of the entorhinal cortex of the Macaca fascicularis monkey were investigated by the placement of small injections of the retrograde tracer wheat germ agglutinin conjugated to horseradish peroxidase into each of its subdivisions. Retrogradely labeled cells were observed in several subcortical regions including the amygdaloid complex, claustrum, basal forebrain, thalamus, hypothalamus, and brainstem. In the amygdala, labeled cells were observed principally in the lateral nucleus, the accessory basal nucleus, the deep or paralaminar portion of the basal nucleus, and the periamygdaloid cortex. Additional retrogradely labeled cells were found in the endopiriform nucleus, the anterior amygdaloid area, and the cortical nuclei. Retrogradely labeled cells were observed throughout much of the rostrocaudal extent of the claustrum and tended to be located in its ventral half. In the basal forebrain, retrogradely labeled cells were observed in the medial septal nucleus, the nucleus of the diagonal band, and to a lesser extent within the substantia innominata. Several of the cells in the latter region were large and located within the densely packed neuronal clusters of the basal nucleus of Meynert. Most of the labeled cells in the thalamus were located in the midline nuclei. Many were found in nucleus reuniens, but even greater numbers were located in the centralis complex. Additional labeled cells were located in the paraventricular and parataenial nuclei. In all cases, numerous retrogradely labeled cells were observed in the medial pulvinar. In the hypothalamus, most of the retrogradely labeled cells were located in the supramamillary area, though scattered cells were also observed in the perifornical region and in the lateral hypothalamic area. Caudal to the mamillary nuclei there were labeled cells in the ventral tegmental area. There were relatively few labeled cells in the brainstem and these were invariably located either in the raphe nuclei or locus coeruleus.


The last 15 years have been characterized by an explosion in the ability to overexpress and purify membrane proteins from prokaryotic organisms as well as from eukaryotes. This increase has been largely driven by the successful push to obtain structural information on membrane proteins. However, the ability to functionally interrogate these proteins has not advanced at the same rate and is often limited to qualitative assays of limited quantitative value, thereby limiting the mechanistic insights that they can provide. An assay to quantitatively investigate the transport activity of reconstituted Cl(-) channels or transporters is described. The assay is based on the measure of the efflux rate of Cl(-) from proteoliposomes following the addition of the K(+) ionophore valinomycin to shunt the membrane potential. An ion sensitive electrode is used to follow the time-course of ion efflux from proteoliposomes reconstituted with the desired protein. The method is highly suited for mechanistic studies, as it allows for the quantitative determination of key properties of the reconstituted protein, such as its unitary transport rate, the fraction of active protein and the molecular mass of the functional unit. The assay can also be utilized to determine the effect of small molecule compounds that directly inhibit/activate the reconstituted protein, as well as to test the modulatory effects of the membrane composition or lipid-modifying reagents. Where possible, direct comparison between results obtained using this method were found to be in good agreement with those obtained using electrophysiological approaches. The technique is illustrated using CLC-ec1, a CLC-type H(+)/Cl(-) exchanger, as a model system. The efflux assay can be utilized to study any Cl(-) conducting channel/transporter and, with minimal changes, can be adapted to study any ion-transporting protein.


The theory of questionnaires deals with the design of experiments for eliciting information with a view to making a decision. The need for eliciting information arises in the problem of allocation of discrete and indivisible scarce resources among consumers by a coordinator. Resource allocation is carried out based on consumer preference information about the discrete resources. This information is acquired by the coordinator by administering a questionnaire, a sequential experimental process that allows the mapping of consumer preference profiles. Questionnaires are comprised of paired comparison experiments. The research questions posed in the paper are akin to those asked in the marketing literature of tailored interviewing: which experiment should be conducted first, and given the answer to the first, which experiment should be conducted next. The focus of this paper is the analysis of the process of preference information acquisition in a choice set-sensitive scenario. A general nonparametric measure of entropy is used for the analysis. >


Policy advocacy involvement by human service providers is important to help protect vital services and government funding streams, but for many organizations participation is limited. Meanwhile, scholars know little about managers' beliefs about advocacy, compromising our ability to create effective interventions. Using qualitative data from homeless service providers, this article investigates what holds nonprofit managers back from greater advocacy involvement. Findings indicate that managers have a broader working definition of advocacy than is generally found in research and limited understanding of the legal regulations. Belief in the organizational and mission-related utility of advocacy was more important for helping managers overcome capacity-related barriers than a social justice orientation.


With the restart of the LHC in 2015, the growth of the CMS Conditions dataset will continue, therefore the need of consistent and highly available access to the Conditions makes a great cause to revisit different aspects of the current data storage solutions.We present a study of alternative data storage backends for the Conditions Databases, by evaluating some of the most popular NoSQL databases to support a key-value representation of the CMS Conditions. An important detail about the Conditions that the payloads are stored as BLOBs, and they can reach sizes that may require special treatment (splitting) in these NoSQL databases. As big binary objects may be a bottleneck in several database systems, and also to give an accurate baseline, a testing framework extension was implemented to measure the characteristics of the handling of arbitrary binary data in these databases. Based on the evaluation, prototypes of a document store, using a column-oriented and plain key-value store, are deployed. An adaption layer to access the backends in the CMS Offline software was developed to provide transparent support for these NoSQL databases in the CMS context. Additional data modelling approaches and considerations in the software layer, deployment and automatization of the databases are also covered in the research. In this paper we present the results of the evaluation as well as a performance comparison of the prototypes studied.


Who do people think are influential in their own community? This question is important for understanding topics such as social networks, political party networks, civic engagement, and local politics. At the same time as research on these topics has grown, measurement of public perceptions of local influence has dried up. Years ago, researchers took active interest in the question of community influence. They found that most ordinary Americans could identify a person who they thought had influence in their community. Respondents usually named business leaders. Where does the public stand today? In three different ways, we ask respondents who has local influence. The vast majority of respondents today cannot think of anyone. Those who do identify someone as influential rarely choose a businessperson. This article aims to reintroduce the public opinion of community influence and situate findings in related scholarship.


Undergraduate training continues to be a challenge to train entrepreneurial specialists with research-oriented attitudes. Depending on the level of func-tional development of the brain, the level of learning will be different in re-lation to chronological age. The ACRA learning strategies scales (Román & Gallego, 2001) allow verifying the frequency, type of strategy and specific technique used by students, the coding strategies being the most important for effective performance throughout life; although there is an abbreviated and validated version of this scale applicable only at the university level by De la Fuente and Justicia (2003); In the study, the 2001 version of Román & Gallego is applied to analyze, according to age, the correspondence between the learning strategies used by the students with their academic performance, as well as to verify if there is a difference by gender, during a period of three years . Technical sheets and final grades of the students were also ap-plied; a multiple linear regression analysis; it is a mixed type investigation. It is observed that the Coding strategies are not used very frequently. In Aca-demic Performance (AR), only 7.85% of the students obtained a final score of 14 or more, the use score coinciding with scales that measure the same learning strategies. The type of strategies and the age (18-19 years) registered influence the RA and only the Acquisition strategies show a slight relation-ship with the RA. There is no gender relationship.


BACKGROUND
Although previous studies indicate that people with lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores are more likely to become cigarette smokers, IQ scores of siblings discordant for smoking and of adolescents who began smoking between ages 18-21 years have not been studied systematically.

METHODS
Each year a random sample of Israeli military recruits complete a smoking questionnaire. Cognitive functioning is assessed by the military using standardized tests equivalent to IQ.

RESULTS
Of 20 221 18-year-old males, 28.5% reported smoking at least one cigarette a day (smokers). An unadjusted comparison found that smokers scored 0.41 effect sizes (ES, P < 0.001) lower than non-smokers; adjusted analyses remained significant (adjusted ES = 0.27, P < 0.001). Adolescents smoking one to five, six to 10, 11-20 and 21+ cigarettes/day had cognitive test scores 0.14, 0.22, 0.33 and 0.5 adjusted ES poorer than those of non-smokers (P < 0.001). Adolescents who did not smoke by age 18, and then began to smoke between ages 18-21 had lower cognitive test scores compared to never-smokers (adjusted ES = 0.14, P < 0.001). An analysis of brothers discordant for smoking found that smoking brothers had lower cognitive scores than non-smoking brothers (adjusted ES = 0.27; P = 0.014).

CONCLUSION
Controlled analyses from this large population-based cohort of male adolescents indicate that IQ scores are lower in male adolescents who smoke compared to non-smokers and in brothers who smoke compared to their non-smoking brothers. The IQs of adolescents who began smoking between ages 18-21 are lower than those of non-smokers. Adolescents with poorer IQ scores might be targeted for programmes designed to prevent smoking.


Ligand cooperation has become an important strategy in the development of new transition metal based transformations. By using this approach some remarkable new catalytic transformations have been achieved, all in the space of only a few years. The purpose of this tutorial review is to explore the potential utilisation of ligands containing borohydride and borane functionalities as reversible hydrogen atom stores. At the heart of this review will be a discussion on hydrogen transfer reactions and the transformation between borohydride and borane moieties. An outline of the various synthetic routes to metal-borane (metallaboratrane) complexes will be provided together with a discussion of their further reactivity including key transformations such as 1,2 additions across the metal-boron bond and 'recharging' the borane functional group back to borohydride. Finally, an evaluation of the potential future applications of such reactivity will be provided.


To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true...In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen--where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new. Continuing in the footsteps of the multiple-award-nominated anthologies Eclipse One and Eclipse Two, Eclipse Three delivers new fiction by some of the genre's most celebrated authors, including Karen Joy Fowler's story of a family's desperation and a rebellious young woman's strange incarceration; Ellen Klages's fable of a practical girl, an unusual tortoise, and an ancient mathematical puzzle; Pat Cadigan's story of a mysterious photograph and two friends' journey through space and time in order to solve its riddle; Jeffrey Ford's tale of a legendary sword imbued with the power to turn flesh to coral, and of the artist that wields it; Daniel Abraham's story of divine providence, sacred oaths, and the omens that indicate whether a man is fit to be king; and Caitlin R. Kiernan's chronicle of an astronaut whose memories of a lover lost to an alien intelligence haunt her. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.


This project set out to use a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to control a water pump to maintain the water level in a tank at a desired setpoint. A proximity sensor is mounted above the upper reservoir to detect the distance to the water level from the sensor, which will be communicated back to an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix PLC. To control the water level, an AC variable speed drive, that can receive instructions from the PLC, is connected to a water pump that will ramp up the RPM as the water level drops below the setpoint to bring it back to the set normal level, and will slow down the rpm as the water level gets closer to the setpoint. The PLC was programmed using software called RSLogix 5000, produced by the Allen-Bradley company, so that the proximity sensor can trigger the pump to start and begin pumping water into the main tank as it is drained. The RSLogix design would be limited to only this tank and pump, however, all of the PLC equipment could be repurposed to be used in a wide variety of applications.


PARP-14, a member of the poly ADP-ribose polymerase super family, promotes T helper cell 2 (Th2) differentiation by regulating interleukin-4 (IL-4) and STAT6-dependent transcription. Yet, whether PARP-14 globally impacts gene regulation has not been determined. In this report, using an RNA pol II ChIP-seq approach, we identify genes in Th2 cells that are regulated by PARP-14, and either dependent or independent of ADP-ribosyltransferase catalytic activity. Our data demonstrate that PARP-14 enhances the expression of Th2 genes as it represses the expression of Th1-associated genes. Among the relevant targets are Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription genes required for polarizing Th1 and Th2 cells. To define a mechanism for PARP-14 function, we use an informatics approach to identify putative PARP-14 DNA binding sites. Two putative PARP-14 binding motifs are identified in multiple Th2 cytokine genes, and we demonstrate that PARP-14 interacts with each motif using in vitro binding assays. Taken together our results indicate that PARP-14 is an important factor for T helper cell differentiation and it binds to specific DNA sequences to mediate its function.


Imaging hardware and video processing techniques offer advantages for traffic monitoring and surveillance. As these experiments show, using appropriate road and vehicle modeling and strong vehicle detection and tracking algorithms offers a good trade-off between correct dynamic vehicle identification and a real-time frame rate. Further, heuristic rules can help analyze and solve difficult traffic situations.


The System for Conceptual Information Summarization, Organization, and Retrieval (SCISOR) is a research system that consists of a set of programs to parse short newspaper texts in the domain of corporate takeovers and finance. The conceptual information extracted from these stories may then be accessed through a natural language interface.

Events in the world of corporate takeovers unfold slowly over time. As a result of this, the input to SCISOR consists of multiple short articles, most of which add a new piece of information to an ongoing story. This motivates a natural language, knowledge-based approach to information retrieval, as traditional methods of document retrieval are inappropriate for retrieving multiple short articles describing events that take place over time. A natural language, knowledge-based approach facilitates obtaining both concise answers to straightforward questions and summaries or updates of the events that take place. The predictable events that take place in the domain make expectation-driven, partial parsing feasible.


Beliefs influence the intentions of people to behave in certain ways towards animals. This study presents survey responses from 237 people working in zoos in China and Europe and describes their demographic characteristics. It explores their beliefs about zoo animal behaviour, welfare and ethical issues, and zoo practices, using a survey methodology. These beliefs may be influenced by individual demographic or cultural factors such as age, gender and region of employment, as well as experiential or situative 'norms' within the work environment. Beliefs were significantly influenced by the region of employment with Chinese respondents beliefs being significantly different to beliefs from respondents in the United Kingdom or the rest of Europe. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the survey generated clusters of people from both regions who indicated positive beliefs about zoo animal welfare as well as clu sters indicating a lack of understanding of some zoo animal welfare issues. In addition, a cluster suggesting cognitive dissonance between beliefs about animals welfare and zoo practices was generated from Chinese responses. Factor analysis identified that prioritisation of in-situ conservation within good animal welfare was a key feature in Chinese respondents, whereas European beliefs prioritising in-situ conservation were distinct from those on supporting good animal welfare. This paper identifies similarities and differences in beliefs about zoo animal welfare and zoo husbandry practices between Europe and China, and discusses the underlying norms and values that these beliefs may reflect.


This study examines the impact of macro-liquidity shocks on the returns of UK stock portfolios sorted on the basis of a series of micro-liquidity measures. The macro-liquidity shocks are extracted on the meeting days of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee relative to market expectations embedded in futures contracts on the 3-month LIBOR during the period June 1999- December 2009. We report definitive evidence that these shocks are transmitted to the cross-section of liquidity-sorted portfolios, with most liquid stocks playing a very active role. Our results emphatically document that the shocks-returns relationship has reversed its sign during the recent financial crisis; the standard inverse relationship between interest rate surprises and portfolios' returns before the crisis has turned into positive during the crisis. This finding confirms the inability of interest rate cuts to boost returns in the shortrun during the crisis, because these were perceived by market participants as a signal of a deteriorating economic outlook.


In view of the relative paucity of information on trace metal distribution in marine animals, a series of studies were Initiated in order to investigate the mechanics of concentration of these materials. Data were obtained on a number of mollusk species. There is a wide variation in species ability to take up and concentrate zinc, lead, nickel, cobalt, iron, manganese, copper, cadmium, and chromium within their natural (estuarine) environment. Uptake rates in a controlled, simulated-environment system using various concentrations of lead, copper, cadmium, and zinc indicate that all of the species studied varied in their selectivity for the particular metal taken up. The rate of uptake, and the tissue level attained, were found to vary with time, and the particular metal concentration used. Using various lead concentrations it was observed that of the various anatomical areas, the muscle, mantle edge, mantle, remainder, gill, gonad, and digestive gland accumulated increasing tissue levels in the order given. Depletion is a relatively slow process in most cases; it varies from species to species as to rate and final tissue concentration.


Since the early 2000s, the proliferation of cameras, whether in mobile phones or CCTV, led to a sharp increase in visual recordings of human behavior. This vast pool of data enables new approaches to analyzing situational dynamics. Application is both qualitative and quantitative and ranges widely in fields such as sociology, psychology, criminology, and education. Despite the potential and numerous applications of this approach, a consolidated methodological frame does not exist. This article draws on various fields of study to outline such a frame, what we call video data analysis (VDA). We discuss VDA's research agenda, methodological forebears, and applications, introduce an analytic tool kit, and discuss criteria for validity. We aim to establish VDA as a methodological frame and an interdisciplinary analytic approach, thereby enhancing efficiency and comparability of studies, and communication among disciplines that employ VDA. This article can serve as a point of reference for current and future practitioners, reviewers, and interested readers.


Growing energy demand has increased interest in marine renewable energy resources (i.e., wave energy, which is harvested through wave energy converter (WEC) arrays. However, the wave energy industry is currently at a significant juncture in its development, facing a number of challenges which require that research re-focuses on a holistic techno-economic perspective, where the economics considers the full life cycle costs of the technology. It also requires development of WECs suitable for niche markets, because in Europe there are inequalities regarding wave energy resources, wave energy companies, national programs and investments. As a result, in Europe there are leading and non-leading countries in wave energy technology. The sector also needs to increase confidence of potential investors by reducing (non-)technological risks. This can be achieved through an interdisciplinary approach by involving engineers, economists, environmental scientists, lawyers, regulators and policy experts. Consequently, the wave energy sector needs to receive the necessary attention compared to other more advanced and commercial offshore energy technologies (e.g., offshore wind). The formation of the first open pan-European network with an interdisciplinary approach will contribute to large-scale WEC array deployment by dealing with the current bottlenecks. The WECANet (Wave Energy Converter Array Network) European COST Action, introduced in September 2018 and presented in this paper, aims at a collaborative and inclusive approach, as it provides a strong networking and collaboration platform that also creates the space for dialogue between all stakeholders in wave energy. An important characteristic of the Action is that participation is open to all parties interested and active in the development of wave energy. Previous activities organised by WECANet core group members have resulted in a number of joint European projects and scientific publications. WECANet's main target is the equal research, training, networking, collaboration and funding opportunities for all researchers and professionals, regardless of age, gender and country in order to obtain understanding of the main challenges governing the development of the wave energy sector.


This paper describes the design of 3D modelling and topological data structure for cadastre objects based on Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) specifications. Tetrahedral Network (TEN) is selected as a 3D topological data structure for this project. Data modelling is based on the LADM standard and it is used five classes (i.e. point, boundary face string, boundary face, tetrahedron and spatial unit). This research aims to enhance the current cadastral system by incorporating 3D topology model based on LADM standard.


I say, in common with the rest of the Greeks, that the Athenians are wise. Now I observe, when we are collected for the Assembly, and the city has to deal with an affair of building, we send for builders to advise us on what is proposed to be built; and when it is a case of laying down a ship, we send for shipwrights; and so in all other matters which are considered learnable and teachable: but if anyone else, whom the people do not regard as a craftsman, attempts to advise them, no matter how handsome and wealthy and well-born he may be, not one of these things induces them to accept him; they merely laugh him to scorn and shout him down, until either the speaker retires from his attempt, overborne by the clamour, or the tipstaves pull him from his place or turn him out altogether by order of the chair. Such is their procedure in matters which they consider professional. But when they have to deliberate on something connected with the administration of the State, the man who rises to advise them on this may equally well be a smith, a shoemaker, a merchant, a sea-captain, a rich man, a poor man, of good family or of none, and nobody thinks of casting in his teeth, as one would in the former case, that his attempt to give advice is justified by no instruction obtained in any quarter, no guidance of any master; and obviously it is because they hold that here the thing cannot be taught. [Pl. Prt. 319b-d]


Colleges are experiencing an increase in requests for Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) to live on campus. However, misconceptions about policies pertaining to ESAs are pervasive. No formal, published study has yet examined the opinions of those who are most impacted—faculty and students. In the present study, 45 faculty and 228 students (49 living with an ESA) were surveyed about their understanding of ESAs and ESA-related policies. Participants were asked about the perceived benefits and disadvantages of having an ESA at college. Results indicate that the majority of faculty and students are supportive of ESAs on campus generally. However, opinions about permitting ESAs into academic spaces are considerably more mixed. Among both faculty and students, there is much confusion about the rules which govern their presence on campus. The survey also revealed support for increased accountability measures for ESAs in the form of training qualifications and welfare considerations.


This work assesses the usefulness of an objective, task-based image quality measure that is correlated with perceived image quality; the measure uses the most salient features contained within a medical image. Contributions include the development of a perceptually correlated metric that is useful for quantifying the salience of local, low-level visual cues and identifying those spatial frequencies that are most distinct and perhaps most relied upon by radiologists for decision making. A set of 40 mammograms and registered eye position data from nine observers was used to evaluate the salience metric. A parsimonious analysis-of-variance model explained the variance in the salience results. This analysis is generalized to a population of readers and cases. An analysis of salience versus time of first eye fixation shows good correlation with true positive lesions that were found by experienced readers in less than 2 s.


Purpose – The aim of this paper is to consider the versatility of management theory by testing it in a non‐management context, in this case sport in general and the Rugby World Cup in particular.Design/methodology/approach – The paper develops a theoretical discussion of performance and competitiveness into a conceptual model before using that model to analyse and discuss the causes of success and failure in the Rugby World Cup.Findings – Understanding the outcome of sporting contests is a complex activity. In the examples discussed, success or failure is the product of both the internal characteristics of the contestants and the external conditions of the contest itself. The findings of the research are robust in their reliability and validity.Originality/value – Originality lies in a number of areas. Theory is used to develop an original conceptual model and it is then tested in an original context. The value of the paper lies as much in the investigations it opens up as in the debates it closes.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the association of financial stress with interest in quitting smoking, making a quit attempt and quit success.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS
The analysis used data from 4984 smokers who participated in waves 4 and 5 (2005-07) of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey, a prospective study of a cohort of smokers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

MEASUREMENT
The outcomes were interest in quitting at wave 4, making a quit attempt and quit success at wave 5. The main predictor was financial stress at wave 4: '. . . because of a shortage of money, were you unable to pay any important bills on time, such as electricity, telephone or rent bills?'. Additional socio-demographic and smoking-related covariates were also examined.

FINDINGS
Smokers with financial stress were more likely than others to have an interest in quitting at baseline [odds ratio (OR): 1.63; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22-2.19], but were less likely to have made a quit attempt at follow-up (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.57-0.96). Among those who made a quit attempt, financial stress was associated with a lower probability of abstinence at follow-up (OR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.33-0.87).

CONCLUSIONS
Cessation treatment efforts should consider assessing routinely the financial stress of their clients and providing additional counseling and resources for smokers who experience financial stress. Social policies that provide a safety net for people who might otherwise face severe financial problems, such as not being able to pay for rent or food, may have a favorable impact on cessation rates.


ABSTRACT Caspase 9 is a critical component of the mitochondrial or intrinsic apoptotic pathway and is activated by Apaf-1 following release of cytochrome c from mitochondria in response to a variety of stimuli. Caspase 9 cleaves and activates effector caspases, mainly caspase 3, leading to the demise of the cell. Survival signaling pathways can impinge on this pathway to restrain apoptosis. Here, we have identified Ser144 of human caspase 9as an inhibitory site that is phosphorylated in a cell-free system and in cells in response to the protein phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid. Inhibitor sensitivity and interactions with caspase 9 indicate that the predominant kinase that targets Ser144 is the atypical protein kinase C isoform zeta (PKCζ). Prevention of Ser144 phosphorylation by inhibition of PKCζ or mutation of caspase 9 promotes caspase 3 activation. Phosphorylation of serine 144 in cells is also induced by hyperosmotic stress, which activates PKCζ and regulates its interaction with caspase 9, but not by growth factors, phorbol ester, or other cellular stresses. These results indicate that phosphorylation and inhibition of caspase 9 by PKCζ restrain the intrinsic apoptotic pathway during hyperosmotic stress. This work provides further evidence that caspase 9 acts as a focal point for multiple protein kinase signaling pathways that regulate apoptosis.


The key role of mitochondria in the integration of apoptosis and oxidative stress in mammals has been documented. In plants, mitochondria are implicated in cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), programmed cell death (PCD), and oxidative stress. However, to date there has been no evidence presented of the interplay among CMS, PCD and oxidative stress. In this study, we demonstrate that the pollen abortion of Honglian CMS line of rice (Oryza sativa L.) displays a PCD phenotype. A premature loss of microspores was accompanied by several biochemical markers of apoptosis. Analysis of mitochondria revealed that during the PCD process there was disruption of the inner mitochondrial membrane potential in microspores. This disruption was correlated with excess production of reactive oxygen species and down-regulation of the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase in mitochondria. The excess accumulation of ROS spanned three stages from pollen mother cell to early-uninucleate stage, and was followed by the occurrence of PCD at meiosis. Our data suggest that the microspores suffered from severe oxidative stress during pollen development. It is likely the chronic oxidative stress triggered the tissue-specific PCD and consequently resulted in the abortion of microspores.


We compute the thermodynamic properties of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) models of fermions with a conserved fermion number Q. We extend a previously proposed Schwarzian effective action to include a phase field, and this describes the low-temperature energy and Q fluctuations. We obtain higher-dimensional generalizations of the SYK models which display disordered metallic states without quasiparticle excitations, and we deduce their thermoelectric transport coefficients. We also examine the corresponding properties of Einstein-Maxwell-axion theories on black brane geometries which interpolate from either AdS4 or AdS5 to an AdS2×R2 or AdS2×R3 near-horizon geometry. These provide holographic descriptions of nonquasiparticle metallic states without momentum conservation. We find a precise match between low-temperature transport and thermodynamics of the SYK and holographic models. In both models, the Seebeck transport coefficient is exactly equal to the Q derivative of the entropy. For the SYK models, quantum chaos, as characterized by the butterfly velocity and the Lyapunov rate, universally determines the thermal diffusivity, but not the charge diffusivity.


The cytotoxicity and anti-influenza virus (IFV) activity of calcium or zinc alginate fibers were investigated to explore the feasibility of them to be used as biomaterials. African Green Monkey kidney cell (Vero) and human cervical cancer cell (Hela) cultured with alginate fibres were used to screen cytotoxic effects. After 48 h, MTT (3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazol)-2,5-diphenyl-2H tetrazolium bromide) assays were performed. Then cytotoxicity was evaluated with six grades according to cell relative growth rate (RGR). In anti-IFV activity assay, IFV were added to all fibers and the Vero cell survival were detected by MTT assays with calculating the percentage of protection. The cytotoxity of calcium alginate fibers on Vero were grade 0 or 1 in contrast to zinc alginate fibers which was grade 0. The cytotoxity of calcium or zinc alginate fibers on Hela were grade 0. Furthermore, partial calcium or zinc alginate fibers could promote Vero or Hela cell growth. In antiviral assay the highest percentage of protection of calcium alginate fibers was 34.42%, while that of zinc alginate fibers was 59.42%. The results showed that calcium or zinc alginate fibers had a good cellular biocompatibility and the large weight zinc alginate fibers had a better anti-IFV activity than calcium alginate fibers, which is potential for tissue engineering.


An overview of the services offered to students at the UNK Learning Commons in Calvin T. Ryan Library Learn to write by writing! For students in 100-level English classes


Democratisation and the Political Economy of a Dysfunctional State: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo Claude Kambuya Kabemba In 2006 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) organized landmark presidential and parliamentary elections after three decades of the dictatorship of President Mobutu Sese Seko and a decade of war. After three years of a difficult transition, the elections produced a legitimate government under President Joseph Kabila. Subsequently, however, the democratic dispensation has struggled to transform the DRC from a failed to a functional state. This thesis examines the causes of state failure and explores conditions that would restore statehood. The central thesis of this research is that successful state building cannot rely primarily on formal institutions such as the holding of elections, but must be linked to nation-building and building of democracy from below. Empirically the thesis looks at the development of statehood in the DRC from the precolonial to contemporary period. In this respect, it analyses the historical trajectories that have shaped the development of the state over the course of decades and identifies attempts to break the impasse around reforms. This thesis contributes to the existing literature on state failure in the DRC by showing how past and present conditions and circumstances are intertwined and impact on the course of state building. It argues that while the origins of state failure are located in Belgian colonization, internal Congolese weaknesses have maintained and reproduced state failure. Furthermore, the thesis proposes that although external actors, interests, and policies continue to determine political and economic dynamics in the DRC, the main challenges revolve around resolving the internal contradictions characterized by democratization without state consolidation. In addition to bad governance, the thesis considers the various strains facing the Congolese state such as the continued conflicts over resources that are fuelled by regional and international actors in collusion with local actors. The thesis concludes that external efforts to build democracy are unlikely to succeed unless there are parallel attempts to reconcile state building with nation building in the DRC.